Taking the Law into Their Own Hands: Do Local Anti-immigrant Ordinances Increase Gun Sales?

• In Event: 281 - Section on International Migration Paper Session. Hard Times for Immigrants in America

Abstract

Within the last few years, anti-immigrant ordinances have proliferated. Considered by towns and municipalities, these ordinances include fines for employers and landlords of undocumented immigrants, bans on foreign flags, and English-only declarations. This article assesses the social consequences of these policies in Pennsylvania, a state where more than 25 communities have legislated against immigrants in recent years. Using panel data analysis, I find that the proposal of anti-immigrant ordinances was associated with an increase in gun sales in the Pennsylvania counties in which they were formally considered. I propose that as public leaders make the case for anti-immigrant ordinances by linking immigrants with crime and social disorder, these menacing portrayals of immigrants, reproduced in local media, have the unintended effect of increasing social anxiety, which triggers gun ownership. In support of this mechanism I find that, following the proposal of local anti-immigrant policies in Pennsylvania, local newspapers published more articles in which immigrants were connected to criminal activities. These results are replicated using concealed gun permits data from South Carolina. This article contributes to the symbolic politics literature by showing the unintended consequences of politicians’ use of threatening symbols to portray immigrants and to the gun ownership literature by providing evidence for the role of social and political factors in influencing gun acquisition. In addition, it illuminates the power of subnational political actors to significantly alter the social environment that immigrants encounter.

Author

• Rene Flores, Princeton University